The invention has for its object a device for feeding cigarettes or any other similar rod-like articles of the tobacco industry, such as filter rods and the like, which device comprises at least one substantially upstanding or inclined cigarette-guiding channel along which the cigarettes coming, for example, from an overlying cigarette mass contained in a cigarette-feeding hopper, descend in a horizontal disposition and as a mass flow, and come out of the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel, means being provided for interrupting at will the said cigarette outflow. Feeding devices of this kind are used, for example, in a machine for filling the cigarette trays intended for supplying a cigarette-packing machine.
In the known cigarette-feeding devices of this kind, the means provided at the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel and designed for interrupting the cigarette outflow from the said channel, consist of suction portions that are activated at will so as to stop the cigarettes in the said channel mouth. Besides these pneumatic means, also mechanical cigarette-intercepting means are known, which comprise at least one small roller that upon control is moved from a rest position, in which it allows the cigarettes to freely pass through the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel, into a mouth-closing position beneath the said mouth, in which it hinders the cigarettes from passing through, and flowing out of, the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel. While affording the advantage of not requiring movable parts into contact with the cigarettes, the above-described pneumatic means for stopping the cigarette outflow from the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel do not however assure a sufficiently safe operation, since the suction ports may be blocked by any tobacco particles unavoidably dropping from the cigarette ends. The above-described mechanical cigarette-intercepting means have instead the disadvantage of a relatively complicated construction.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the afore-mentioned disadvantages in the heretofore known constructions, and to provide a feeding device of the kind as disclosed in the preamble, in which the cigarette outflow from the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel can be most safely interrupted and resumed by the use of means of a simple construction, affording also a number of additional advantages, particularly the advantage of compensating automatically any small transient differences between the cigarette rate delivered from the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel and the cigarette rate being taken in downstream of the feeding device.
This object is attained by the invention with a feeding device of the kind as described in the preamble, which is substantially characterized by the feature that the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel is bound at the sides thereof by two endless conveyor members set in a facing relation and shiftable from a mouth-closing position in which they are drawn near to each other so as to close the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel and prevent the cigarettes from flowing out therefrom, into a mouth-opening position in which they are drawn away from each other so to open the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel and allow the cigarettes to flow out therefrom.
Preferably, according to a further characteristic feature of the invention, the two reciprocally shiftable endless conveyor members provided in an oppositely arranged relation at the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel, are urged the one toward the other by return forces, whereby they tend to be moved into mouth-closing position, the said endless conveyor members being drawn away from each other and moved into mouth-opening position by the thrust as exerted thereon by the cigarettes that are urged to descend along the cigarette-guiding channel and/or to flow out of the mouth thereof by a driving force being adjunctive to the force of gravity and to the pressure as applied by the weight of an overlying cigarette mass, which driving force is upon control reducible, annullable, or reversible. In this instance, to interrupt the cigarette outflow from the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel, it will be sufficient to reduce, annull, or reverse the adjunctive driving force urging for the descent of the cigarettes along the said channel, thus decreasing or annulling the thrust exerted by the cigarettes on the conveyor members provided at the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel, whereby the returning forces acting upon these endless conveyor members are allowed to shift them into mouth-closing position.
The driving force urging the cigarettes to flow out of the bottom of the cigarette-guiding channel, which is joined to the force of gravity and/or the weight pressure of an overlying cigarette mass, can be obtained by operating the endless conveyor members provided at the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel so as to cause them to run in the direction for delivering the cigarettes from the said channel, and/or by delimiting the cigarette-guiding channel at the sides thereof and over at least a portion of its height, upsteam of the said endless conveyor members provided at the said channel mouth, by means of small endless belts of chain tracks, or the like, arranged in an opposite relation and operated so as to drive down the cigarettes toward the mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel. In this instance, to interrupt the cigarette outflow from the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel, it will be sufficient to stop or reverse the movement of the endless conveyor members provided at the mouth of said channel, and/or of the endless belts or chain tracks delimiting the sides of the cigarette-guiding channel.
The reciprocally shiftable endless conveyor members provided on opposite sides of the lower mouth of the cigarette-guiding channel may consist of rollers or of endless small belts or chain tracks. These endless chain tracks or belts are led about respective small pulleys, preferably so as to be set with two downwardly converging, oppositely arranged stretches, which are designed for receiving the thrust of the overlying cigarette mass, in order to move the said chain tracks or belts into mouth-opening position.